By Uy Pham
Fountain Valley High School’s Associated Student Body (ASB) has reformed its Executive Council selection process to include three parts: popular vote, ASB leadership class vote and an additional interview panel. The new process, as affirmed by the 2024-2025 ASB By-Laws, will begin in the spring of 2025 for the 2025-2026 school year.
Previously, students meeting application requirements would be able to apply to run in the Executive Council Election. Afterward, the outgoing Executive Council members, ASB Activities Director and Assistant Principal of Activities would conduct interviews and remove any candidate from the election process if deemed necessary.
Under the previous system, the top five vote recipients of the school-wide election would be appointed as the incoming Executive Council.
The amended three-part process marks a shift from the election process since at least 2018, except for the 2021 elections, in which the ASB advisor at the time decided not to host an election due to the potential for lower voter turnout during distance learning.
According to Assistant Principal of Activities and Athletics Hayato Yuuki and Activities Director Patricia Brewer, all modifications were presented to the Executive Council and the entire ASB for approval.
“As a class, I feel like that we all thought it was more fair and the best fit to find the most qualified candidate for the position,” senior and ASB President Kayla Nguyen said. “Because it is a very high and important job to take on, and in order for that to be fulfilled, we thought it was best if we could get all the people’s input and voices who worked with the executive board.”
When asked how the three parts would be weighed in the final determination of the selected executive members, Yuuki and Brewer replied via email that it would be determined by the “culmination” of the three parts, including the new element of an ASB leadership class vote.
“I think that it [the changes] show that it’s not just a popularity test and who’s the most popular, but it’s going to show us which candidates that people actually know are going to work,” sophomore and secretary Joyce-Pauline Dang said. “We’re asking students in our leadership class because they know who is the most hard-working, who has the most leadership … It’s going to help bring a variety of voices.”
“All of ASB, essentially, [is] the bridge between staff and students. With a better voice from ASB and with admin [the ASB leadership class], it’s more of a collaborative decision,” junior and treasurer Chloe Im added.
Regarding the interview panel, Brewer described pre-election interviews as a “quick little interview process” conducted by non-returning Executive Council members to determine which applicants would move to the ballot.
The newly implemented secondary interview panel would include members of the school administration, the four class commissions advisors, the Activities Office staff and Brewer. This panel would interview all the candidates who made the ballot as part of the process to determine the final Executive Council.
Two additional revisions were made, with one being the removal of the clause that permits the addition of a sixth member to the Executive Council if deemed necessary — a clause that was exercised most recently in the last election and in 2021.
When asked if there would still be such a clause, Yuuki and Brewer cited Article III, Section III, Part A which states: The Executive Council shall be the representative body of the Associated Student Body. It shall consist of five (5) positions.
Brewer clarified that this means there is no specific requirement or restriction to how many students can serve on the Executive Council, but rather there are five roles.
“Those [by-laws] were old, and once we reviewed everything, just like any by-laws or constitutions, everything needs to be revised. It was simpler to just simply state five positions,” Brewer said.
Another change as part of this year’s amendments includes a requirement that those who do not make the executive ballot will be required to go through the general administrative interview process; in previous years, these students would automatically get a position in ASB.
“We thought that was a little unfair … and that you should get re-interviewed or re-evaluated to be on the administrative council because we think it would help make it more qualified leaders in the program,” Nguyen said.
ASB has stated that they have no further comment in response to any further questions related to the amendments to the Executive Council selection process.
“Per the district office, we have been advised to tell you guys that this is all the information we have on this matter and any other questions from here on out, we’ll just respond with no comment, because we have no more to contribute to this discussion,” senior and Co-Parliamentarian McKayla Garcia said.
This article was updated on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 7:58 p.m. to clarify that Yuuki and Brewer stated that a culmination of the three parts would be used to determine the final members of Executive Council.
